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Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Daring Bakers do it again! Cheesecake Lollipops!

What a wonderful and fun recipe this was. Out of all of the things that I have made for the Daring Bakers challenges this is probably one of my favorites. The only problem that I had with this one was the time frame. I really thought I had until the end of the month. Thank goodness yesterday I registered with the new Daring Baker Forum and saw that I needed to post today!!! Needless to say I got started right away!

This recipe was easy, straight forward and delicious! The only problem I had was the length of time it took to bake. But I had checked out the forum and I was prepared for this. I made mine in a 9 inch square pan and it took close to 75 minutes to be set properly. The great thing about this though is once it was set it was a breeze to work with. I was able to hand roll them into balls with virtually no trouble at all. I did not have lollipop sticks so I used 6 inch bamboo skewers.Hosting this month’s event is Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. Thank you Elle and Deborah for hosting D.B. this month.

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionery coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

For toppings I used cinnamon graham crumbs, chopped pistachio's and assorted sprinkles.

Would I make this again?: I loved the cheesecake recipe so I would definitely make a cheesecake using this recipe but the lollipops...maybe not. It was pretty messy and I had 2 sets of little hands trying to help me and it just ended up really messy although they had a ton of fun doing it. To try and transport them somewhere would be almost impossible as well. They tasted great though and as I said I LOVED the cheesecake!

Once again thanks Daring Bakers for taking me out of my comfort zone (which right now isn't too hard)!!!

I love your confetti! Too cute! Good thing you saw on the forum it was posted today! You did a great job by the way. I have to agree with the whole messy thing. I must've washed my hands 50 times during the rolling process.